Product Update

This new toy I got is so awesome, I just had to blog about it. You're probably trying to guess what it is. A new Macbook? No, not yet. Still deciding on that one. A new bike? No, don't be silly, I have enough of those (some that I don't even ride anymore). It's a vacuum! Haha, I know I know. You probably think I'm crazy, but let me tell you first. So a few months ago my friends were telling me about this cool vacuum called the Electrolux ErgoRapido that they had purchased. It's a $99 floor vac from Target (or wherever you want to get it) and it has a built in hand vac. I tried it over at their place, then after getting annoyed at the crappy floor vacs that I owned, I asked for one for Christmas. It's awesome. I have hardwood floors and I'm so impressed with this thing. First, the pivoting action on the front end is very nice, plus it rolls so smoothly and the suction is great. I use it on my area rug and it does a good job there too, but really it's for hard floors, not carpet. If you have hard floors (wood, tile, whatever) I totally recommend this thing.

Merry Christmas!

I had the most wonderful Christmas. I got to spend it with my parents and with Jeremy. After doing our family Christmas on the 24th in the am, we headed down to Houston for the meeting of the parents. Surprisingly it went really well. Everyone got along and they talked for hours. In fact we only played one game of apples to apples and the rest of the time they all just chatted away. I requested that Jeremy and I open our gifts alone in bed on Christmas morning, so Jeremy surprised me and brought in the little rosemary tree from the kitchen and put all our gifts around it. It was very sweet. In addition to other things he got me these two awesome gifts. First, a Mario Batali book. . I'm so excited to make all these dishes! Okay, well a bunch of them at least. Secondly, he got me this stoneware piece from pampered chef. It's a small stone plate and it's perfect for making bacon in the microwave. I know, I know, bacon in the microwave doesn't sound that great, but on this stone it comes out freaken awesome. Plus I'm sure you can make other yummy stuff on here. A great investment.

My parents got me a bunch of cool stuff including lots of Craftsman tools (which I desperately needed) and a reciprocating saw! Is it weird for me to be excited about this? They also sent me some flowers when they were in Hawaii. Here's a pic about some of them. Aren't they beautiful! They also sent me an orchid the week before. My house is now filled with all these beautiful flowers plus the rosemary tree and poinsettias from Christmas. My new years resolution is to keep them all alive as long as possible.

Finally I must show off some other cool stuff I got. First, I treated myself to a new knife for Christmas. It's a Ken Onion Shun 7" Suduko.












Also, I have to show ya'll these really cute spatulas from Williams Sonoma. My friends bought me this nice big one, because they know that I'd been looking for the small ones, which happened to be sold out all over Austin. It was really nice of them. (I have great friends). Then Jeremy found one small set (the only ones left in Houston) and got them for me (I have a great boyfriend too!).











Thanks to all my friends and my family and Jeremy for helping me have a wonderful Christmas. It was the best! Check out my flickr page for more photos of Christmas and dinner. But for now, I'll leave you with one more photo. These are the banana purses that I made for dinner last night. Mmmm, yummy!

Merry Christmas... 11 days and counting

The tree is up, the presents are wrapped, and the baking... well the baking has yet to be started. But it will be started soon! The unofficial baking list for this year includes chocolate chip cookies, mexican wedding cookies, peanut butter blossoms, kieffuls, cutout cookies, and butter cookies. Yesterday at the store I bought 8 lbs of butter, 56 oz of cream cheese, 48 oz of chocolate chips, a jar of peanutbutter, 10 lbs of flour, 2 bags of sugar, and a bunch of other necessities... oh yea 4 lbs of confectioner sugar! I'm so ready to bake! If you wanna help out stop by sometime this week after work... I'll be at home with the oven on!

Oh yea, here's a link to some of the Christmas pictures that Jeremy and I took this past weekend. I may try to touch them up in a little while, but for now, they're at least up. After taking pictures we went to this super awesome restaurant, Perry's Steakhouse. It's so delicious, I recommend ya'll check it out. Afterward we went over to Chelsea wine bar in Clear Lake and played some chess while we sipped on our wine. It was the perfect evening.

MS150, Christmas Prep, Worlds Best Cake???

Wow so much to blog about, but I'll try to keep it short. haha, yea right.

So the MS150 is coming up again in April and once again I'm riding from Houston to Austin. I'm super psyched this year because three of my friends are riding with me, one of who is from Atlanta! Yep, Tanner's making the trip to TX just for this ride. I need to get my training on now! So this is also the first time that I post here about donating to this wonderful cause. Yea, I know it's Christmas and most of us don't have a lot of extra cash on hand, but I'm gonna post this now and then again each month until the MS150 :) No I don't have any cool prizes or awesome contests to run like these guys, but I do have a wonderful cause. Did you know just recently a pill has been designed specifically to treat Multiple Sclerosis? It's the first of it's kind. And it was developed through lots of research, research that is funded through donations like yours. Did you also know there is a study being done to link MS to the veins that drain blood from the brain? Yep, there is current speculation that symptoms of MS are brought about when the veins in the lower part of the brain start to collapse or become blocked and the blood drainage from the brain and the spinal cord is reduced. They don't know much yet if this is a symptom or cause of MS, but research is being done in Italy and in the US to try to reopen these veins in people with MS, and they are seeing amazing results. Really, breakthrough technology. These are just two examples of how MS Research is really going somewhere. So if you'd like to help out with my ride, and help me out in raising money toward fighting this disease please donate HERE. Everything helps, even the little amounts!

Can you believe it's almost Christmas already? Insane! Fortunately I have most of my Christmas shopping already done. However, the baking has yet to be started! This weekend it's time to go get the tree (yep, a real one), decorate it, and get ready for the family. Jeremy's house needs a lot of help before we're ready for company, so that's gonna be the weekend project. Next week will be cookie time! I'm hoping to make chocolate chip, drop a-pea's (butter cookies), cut-outs, peanut butter blossoms, mexican wedding cookies, and of course kiefuls! And lets not forget that it's Matt's birthday next weekend. Hum... I have some things in mind for that too :). And speaking of baking... I was recently sent this recipe for "the worlds best cake." Now, I'm not a huge chocolate fan, nor oatmeal, but it looks good enough to give it a try sometime. Plus I just like reading this guys blog, he's way funnier than I am. Check out that recipe HERE.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!